The present invention relates to devices for acquiring and retrieving objects from water and more particularly to devices for retrieving cargo floating at sea by helicopters.
In the past, the pickup of objects floating at sea by helicopters or ships has been accomplished with difficulty. Oftentimes it has been necessary to lower crewmen from the aircraft or ship into the water to secure the cargo to be acquired before lifting it aboard the craft. To obviate the need to use that inconvenient, time consuming and risky procedure, extensible poles equipped with hooks at their terminal ends have been employed to latch onto objects floating at sea. However, such poles have proven clumsy and dangerous when used in rough sea states and especially unmanageable when helicpoters cannot hover close to the object to be retrieved. Alternately, bridle suspended nets have been used to scoop up cargo, but such devices have required careful orientation with respect to the position of the objects to be recovered, frequently difficult to accomplish even when such devices have been fitted with guiding fins or vanes. Clearly, all of the above described techniques suffer from similar limitations especially severe in rough sea states when objects to be recovered are bobbing up and down in the water. These procedures are unwieldly, time consuming, and even dangerous to the personnel attempting to use them.